Known vacuum cleaners are designed for collecting a particular particle size range of dirt. For example, a household vacuum cleaner is typically designed for collecting particulate matter that accumulates on hardwood floors and carpet. Current household vacuum cleaners that utilize cyclonic separation will tend to become clogged if the vacuum cleaner is used to collect, e.g., ash from a fireplace or dry wall dust. Such particulate matter is lighter and finer than common household dust and a substantial portion of this material will pass through a current cyclonic vacuum cleaner and will be collected by a filter positioned downstream from the cyclone. Similarly, wet/dry vacuum cleaners may be utilized to collect saw dust or other construction debris. However, additional filters may be inserted in the air stream in the wet/dry vacuum cleaner if the wet/dry vacuum cleaner is to collect, e.g., dry wall dust. Accordingly, even though a wet/dry vacuum cleaner may be adapted to collect dry wall dust by the addition of filters, it requires the vacuum cleaner being disassembled and addition filtration members manually inserted.
In addition, current wet/dry or shop vac style vacuum cleaners are large bulk appliances, which are cumbersome to ship and store.